"A survey of Nature, and the observation of her beautiful proportions, first determined man to imitate the Divine plan and study symmetry and order. This rise to societies, and birth to every useful art."-Masonic Monitor
The survey or observation of Nature shows us that all objects within our immediate knowledge belong to three other of the three natural kingdoms, - mineral, vegetable, and animal.
When, in the beginning, by the fiat of the great Creator, matter was called into existence, the elements of these three kingdoms were then created, or they had existed from all eternity.
To us it is evident that they do exist now. The student "may curiously trace Nature through her various windings to her most concealed recesses, and may discover the power, the wisdom, and the beneficence (wisdom, power, and harmony), of the Grand Architect of the Universe, and view with delight the proportions which connect this vast machine; he may demonstrate how the planets move in their different orbits and perform their various revolutions." All those worlds around which can be seen by the naked eye, as also the myriads of others only to be discovered by the most powerful telescopes, "were framed by the Divine Artist, which roll through the vast expanse, and are conducted by the same unerring law of Nature."
By revelations of science, the student has learned that the bodies which give us light are composed of the same primitive elements as the one on which we dwell, the component parts of which can be subjected to analysis, and by which we have been enabled to reduce all known matter to about sixty-four elementary substances.
To us it is evident that they do exist now. The student "may curiously trace Nature through her various windings to her most concealed recesses, and may discover the power, the wisdom, and the beneficence (wisdom, power, and harmony), of the Grand Architect of the Universe, and view with delight the proportions which connect this vast machine; he may demonstrate how the planets move in their different orbits and perform their various revolutions." All those worlds around which can be seen by the naked eye, as also the myriads of others only to be discovered by the most powerful telescopes, "were framed by the Divine Artist, which roll through the vast expanse, and are conducted by the same unerring law of Nature."
By revelations of science, the student has learned that the bodies which give us light are composed of the same primitive elements as the one on which we dwell, the component parts of which can be subjected to analysis, and by which we have been enabled to reduce all known matter to about sixty-four elementary substances.
These, when thus reduced, belong to the mineral kingdom, and are inert of themselves. From them are derived all the varieties of the vegetable kingdom by the forces of natural law operating upon them.
From the substances thus produced in the vegetable kingdom are derived all those elements that enter into the matter which constitutes the animal kingdom.
These substances, - viz: the mineral, vegetable, and animal, - when in a primary condition, are all inert matter, and can be acted upon integrally by forces differing from themselves in very essential particulars.
To certain, if not all, mineral substances the laws of affinity and repulsion can be applied, whereby the very nature of each can be diametrically altered. An acid substance and an alkali, when combined, at once change their conditions and form a third substance differing from either; and so on in all chemical analysis and syntheses.
In the vegetable world there is a force of Nature by which the mineral substances are converted into vegetable fibre.
The substance which constitute animal tissues would never be thus converted with the force of vitality.
The vegetable product, after living and growing, ceases to grow and to live when the vital force decays and leaves it, and it becomes resolves into its original mineral element.
The body of an animal when deprived of its vitality soon dissolves, becomes disintegrated, and these particles pass into the air or earth, and as minerals enter into new combination's.
Has any scientist ever discovered the ultima ratio of the chemical law of affinity in the mineral, or of the law of vitality in the vegetable and animal worlds? Yet they are there acting, and have ever been since these several substances were created or existed.
Man belongs to the animal kingdom; is said to be at the summit of that kingdom, and the most perfect in his structure of all created or existing things. (Supposedly)
History of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Ma~sons, and Con~cor~dant Orders. - 1904
From the substances thus produced in the vegetable kingdom are derived all those elements that enter into the matter which constitutes the animal kingdom.
These substances, - viz: the mineral, vegetable, and animal, - when in a primary condition, are all inert matter, and can be acted upon integrally by forces differing from themselves in very essential particulars.
To certain, if not all, mineral substances the laws of affinity and repulsion can be applied, whereby the very nature of each can be diametrically altered. An acid substance and an alkali, when combined, at once change their conditions and form a third substance differing from either; and so on in all chemical analysis and syntheses.
In the vegetable world there is a force of Nature by which the mineral substances are converted into vegetable fibre.
The substance which constitute animal tissues would never be thus converted with the force of vitality.
The vegetable product, after living and growing, ceases to grow and to live when the vital force decays and leaves it, and it becomes resolves into its original mineral element.
The body of an animal when deprived of its vitality soon dissolves, becomes disintegrated, and these particles pass into the air or earth, and as minerals enter into new combination's.
Has any scientist ever discovered the ultima ratio of the chemical law of affinity in the mineral, or of the law of vitality in the vegetable and animal worlds? Yet they are there acting, and have ever been since these several substances were created or existed.
Man belongs to the animal kingdom; is said to be at the summit of that kingdom, and the most perfect in his structure of all created or existing things. (Supposedly)
History of the Ancient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Ma~sons, and Con~cor~dant Orders. - 1904